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Norris Cole
Norris Benjamin Cole is played by Malcolm Hebden. He first appeared in 1994 but left in 1997, only to return in 1999. He continues in the series to the present day. He has lived for several years as a lodger of Emily Bishop at 3 Coronation Street. Storylines Norris came into the series after rescuing Derek Wilton when his car broke down. He was at that time a travelling salesman. He saw Derek as a friend (he mistakenly called him Dirk quite often), and imposed himself on Derek and his wife Mavis at every opportunity. Eventually, he stole Derek's position as a senior salesman and married Derek's ex-wife, Angela Hawthorne. They were soon divorced, however, and Norris ended up a door-to-door salesman. He returned to the street for Derek's funeral after he died of a heart attack after a road rage incident, which was how he arrived in Rita Sullivan's shop, "The Kabin", where he now works. He and Rita form the traditional shop comedy double-act. He has a big ego and an inaccurate view of his own potential. He has attempted to find work elsewhere (and even went as far as claiming he was 46 years old on application forms) but was unsuccessful. Norris is portrayed with a camp persona. He has got into many scrapes due to his nosiness and his constant gossiping. It was due to this reputation that no one believed his suspicions about Richard Hillman being a sinister character in 2002, which ultimately proved to be true. On 2nd September 2007, Norris proposed to Rita, with Rita declining Norris's proposal. On 25th November 2007, Norris proposed to Doreen Fenwick before he found out that both George Trench and Ivor Priestley had also proposed to her. She told them all that she will think about their proposals whilst Rita described them all as mad at each other. In May 2008, a gang of teenage boys robbed the Kabin, and during which, Norris was shoved to the ground. The experience left him shaken and angry. In July 2008, Tony Gordon approached Norris and Rita, and tried to persuade them to sell the Kabin to him. Rita eventually appeared enthusiastic about he idea, and decided for final that she was going to take Tony's offer, while Norris seemed angry, Tony later bought Norris, Rita, and Emily a drink in The Rovers, in an attempt to manipulate Norris to seem more reluctant of the situation. Norris found an envelope belonging to Emily on 22nd August 2008, reading "to be opened after my death", later on, Emily shown Norris what it was, plans for her funeral, a few days later, Norris discovered that there was something else inside and uncovered some photos of Rita in earlier life, eventually when Emily and Rita discovered this Emily claimed that the photos must have slipped into there while she had a clear out several years back, and that she had planned to return them to Rita, but had never found them, despite looking for them. In October 2008, Rita employed Tina McIntyre to work at The Kabin, due to Norris having back problems. However he took an instant disliking to the situation. Later that month, Emily discovered ladies underwear in a bin bag which Norris had. Instantly suspicious, she and Rita confronted Norris about it and asked him if he was a transvestite. He explained that he had won the underwear in a competition and that he had an addiction to competitions. On 26th November 2008, Norris' love interest Mary Taylor arrived on the Street.http://www.itv.com/PressCentre/CoronationStreet/Ep5958Wk49/default.html